Between the price of event tickets, concessions, parking lots, and online "convenience fees," going out for a simple night of fun can cost you an arm and a leg. If you're looking to get out of the house, here are some good ways to have fun without the exorbitant cost.

Reduce the Check When You Go Out to Dinner

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Not only can eating out be expensive, but it will probably get tacked on to plenty of other events you'll go to. As such, this should probably be one of the first places you look to save money. The obvious ways to cut costs are to eat at cheaper restaurants or cook your own meals, but that isn't very fun, is it? Here are some things you can try to shave that check:

Eat at culinary schools. Chefs have to learn to cook somewhere. Often, culinary schools will run educational restaurants that allow students to learn their trade by cooking for the public. You can get a nice meal for cheaper than you might at a regular restaurant.

Find discounted vouchers. Groupon isn't the only game in town when it comes to finding deals on meals. There are plenty of places to get discounted vouchers for meals out. Restaurant.com, LivingSocial, and Amazon Local are great places not only to find deals, but to discover new restaurants in your area.

Eat lunch, not dinner. If you have the choice between eating earlier and later, go for earlier. Dinner meals are frequently more expensive than lunch for a variety of reasons. Not only is competition for speed and turnover higher around lunch time, but it's easier to coax money out of people in the evening when they're relaxed.

Have a small snack first. Your mother told you all your life not to snack or you'll ruin your appetite. You're an adult now, though, and it's time to break those chains. If you go to a restaurant ravenous, you'll be more likely to indulge in expensive meals. Everyone knows you should avoid going grocery shopping while hungry. Just apply that same logic to dining out.

Skip the booze. I know, I know. This is supposed to be fun. However, the quickest way to burn through your funds is to start out by spending $8 per cocktail to increasingly impair your judgment (and then spend even more on a taxi home). If you really want to drink as part of your night out, withdraw a small amount of cash and stick to that budget.

See a Movie For Less Than a Fortune

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Movie theaters are notorious for being expensive outings (though, compared to concerts or plays, they're among the cheapest shows you can see). They don't have to be, though. There are plenty of ways you can save on every part of the movie theater experience:

Buy cheap movie passes. If you've got a AAA membership, you can usually buy passes for movie theaters for a few dollars less than you'll pay at the box office. Warehouse stores like Costco also often sell packages of tickets for 10 at a time for a cheaper per-ticket cost. It will cost a bit more up front, but if you know you'll use them, the bundle can save you a bundle.

Go to a dollar theater. If you don't mind seeing films that are a few months old, you can try a dollar theater. Some theaters offer huge discounts on ticket prices by playing films after they've had their initial major theater run.

Grab a snack before hand. It would seem like common sense, but the only reason concession stands are profitable is because people go to the theater hungry. There's one easy hack to avoid the eight dollar popcorn trap: eat and drink before you get to the theater.

Enroll in rewards programs. Most movie theater chains like AMC and Regal offer a rewards program. Some may offer you a free ticket after every ten. Others will simply be a small amount of change off some concessions. Every little bit counts, though.

Find a drive-in. Yes, they still exist, and they can be quite cheap. Because drive-ins have considerably less overhead (both figuratively and literally), they can charge less per ticket for a show. Plus, you have the added benefit of a more peaceful viewing environment, provided you don't let the screaming baby and the jerk on his cell phone into your car.

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Rock Out Without Your Wallet Out

Concerts aren't exactly cheap, but there are ways you can cut down on the costs associated with getting your party on. Because nothing is more metal than being frugal.

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Buy tickets at the box office to avoid convenience fees. You didn't think something could get easier and cheaper, did you? Often, ticketing sites will charge a "convenience fee" that tacks an extra couple bucks on to your ticket price purely because you ordered online. Skip the fee by stopping by the venue.

Avoid expensive food and drinks inside the event. Most concerts won't allow you to bring in your own drinks, but you can still cut down on costs by tailgating the event and eating your fill before you go in. Of course, you'll never, ever want to try to sneak your own drinks into the event. We would never tell you to do that.

Find free shows at arts centers, colleges, and libraries. No, Mackelmore or whatever you kids listen to these days probably won't show up to your county's local library. However, on a given weekend, some place near you could potentially have live music going on for free.

Get Into Museums Without Paying a Finder's Fee

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Museums can be fun. Listen, I promise, seeing dinosaur bones is just as exciting as seeing Iron Man 3. Or at least better than Man of Steel. Fortunately, educational attractions have a plethora of money-saving methods available to you:

Attend "Free to the Public" day. Many museums offer a periodic event that allows anyone to come in and explore without paying an admission fee. Depending on the museum, it may be one day a month, or just once or twice a year, but if you're not in a hurry to go to a certain place on a schedule, you can eliminate the admission fee entirely.

Take advantage of discounts.Bank of America, AAA, and other organizations offer discounts on admission passes for museums. Check with your bank, your employer, and any group you have a membership with to see if they have any discounts you can take advantage of.

Get a Go Card. While it's only available in select cities, Go Cards can offer you a single pass that gets you into a ton of attractions for a single price. Go Cards are supported in cities including but not limited to New York, Chicago, San Diego, and Orlando. These include a number of museums, so if you're taking a vacation, try starting your itinerary planning here.

Go to museums with suggested donations. Some museums don't have admission prices, in the strictest sense. Many will simply request that you make some donation, and offer a suggested amount. If you can afford it, it's frowned upon to pitch in less than the suggested donation, but if you have little cash and still want to learn something, just put in what you can. Don't feel guilty if you can't pay more, either. Museums need money, but the suggestion system exists so you're not locked out if you're hurting for cash.

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Attend Sporting Events Without Fumbling Your Finances

Sporting events often involve a lot of cheering, a lot of drinking, and, I am told, some measure of getting rowdy tonight. Hank Williams Jr. made no mention of shrewdly saving your money. That doesn't mean you can't pocket some cash, though.

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Check out ticket broker sites. Sometimes, events just don't sell well. In those cases, you can almost always find some deals on tickets via sites like StubHub or RazorGator. You can even search through several broker sites at once on Ticketwood. Before buying tickets to any event, check out our guide to getting the best price on any admission.

Get tickets from season pass holders. Often, season pass holders will shell out money for tickets to every game in a season, but only attend some. For them, it's cheaper to buy in bulk, but if they don't use a ticket for a particular game, you can always try to purchase them for less than the cost of paying for it outright.

Honor the tailgate tradition to save money on food. Hot dogs don't cost $8, but you wouldn't know it inside of a stadium. Tailgating before a game isn't just a great way to have fun with your friends and family, it's your last chance to get a meal on your terms, instead of paying too much money for too little meat.

Neither a Spender, Nor a Beggar Be at Plays

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Live theater isn't nearly as common in the shadow of movie theaters, but they're still a fantastic source of entertainment that guarantees a unique experience every time. Plus, going to plays is super classy.

Volunteer for free admission. You may not be able to get into a Broadway show, but some smaller theaters have volunteer programs. Sign up to take tickets, direct people to their seats, or serve concessions and in exchange, the playhouse will allow you to view the show for free.

Skip the floor seats and go for the balcony/mezzanine. It's most people's instinct to think the closest, most expensive seats are the best. This isn't always the case. While it may be difficult to see from far back in a large theater, thanks to modern audio systems, most of the time it's not that big of a deal. Save yourself some cash and get seats that have a better angle than the floor and save some cash.

Don't buy at the door; buy during the off season. In some cases, ticket prices will be a bit pricier at the door. If you can order ahead of time, it may be worth it. Even better, though, is to buy during the off season of a particular show. If you can buy your tickets before the season starts, you may get a discount, as well as your choice of seating.

Find an outdoor play.Shakespeare in the Park is popular for a lot of good reasons. The biggest one is because it's Shakespeare, but it doesn't hurt that the performances are (usually) free. You may have a hard time getting through the lines for tickets, which can sell out fast, but it will be worth it for a free evening of classic literary performances. While the most notable Shakespeare in the Park is held in Central Park, NYC, you can typically find similar events in other major cities.

Keep Mickey Away From Your Money at Amusement Parks

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Let's be real. If you go to an amusement park, you're going to spend a bunch of money. Virtually everything inside the walls is designed to coax hard-earned cash from your pockets and it's all marked way up. However, you can still shave the price.

Buy tickets online. As unlikely as the sentence may be, movie theaters could learn something from the amusement park industry when it comes to pricing. Buying passes online can get you a pretty steep discount. As a bonus, many parks have special lines that can get you through faster if you already purchased your passes.

Get a multi-day pass. The biggest amusement parks are too big to get through on a single day. If you need to hit absolute rock bottom pricing, this may not be the trick for you, but if you can swing multiple days, you'll pay less per day and be able to take your time at the park, which is good because you'll need plenty of it.

Don't eat anything from the park if you can avoid it. Theme park food and drinks are typically far more expensive than they need to be. What's worse is that many parks forbid your own food and drink to be brought in. Sneaking in your own grub is one way to save money, but leaving the park for a meal is just as helpful.

No, seriously, use your AAA discount. If you detect any pattern here, it should be this one. With AAA, you can get discounts on theme park admission as well as total vacation packages, if you're traveling out of state to get there. Seriously, though. If you're looking to save money on things and you have a AAA membership, the discount site should be your first stop.

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Regardless of what you do when you go out, there are plenty of ways to save money across the board. Don't think that being broke means you can't have a fun-filled night out on the town. Also, some of the tips for certain events on this list are universally applicable (like, say, AAA discounts), so be sure to try them all, where applicable.